Indexed newspapers - what's been your best find?

[gazania]

I have found the indexed newspapers (both in the UK and OZ) a mine of information; things ranging from a prim great uncle breaking the law, a great grandfather writing a letter to the editor about all things Irish.  Another great grandfather won prizes in a Derby competition and then a couple of years later after migrating to OZ won prizes for similar exhibits.  Apart from birth, marriage and funeral notices, the ones that have been the most touching were about my gentle and shy mother.

I knew she stuttered and was given elocution lessons as a child, which she hated with a passion, although she did say she could speak fluently when she recited. In her late teens she also became profoundly deaf.  But in one very gossipy newspaper for a period of two years, my mother appeared frequently at various functions giving well praised speeches and performances of poetry and play reading.  She also won prizes for art which was really her lifelong passion.  She is no longer here for me to show my finds.  She would have probably laughed her head off.

Regards, Gazania

[Finley 1]

The report of my Gt. gt. grandfather, and his brothers being arrested in Scotland,  at the time of the Miners Strike.. Shows where the stubborn streak in the family came from.

xin

[Dougalgeorge]

Hi 

Mine has been finding my GG Grandad grew prize leeks and bred Bedlington Terriers, all the things that put flesh onto his bones and make me talk about him as if I knew him personally.

[coombs]

My 3xgreat aunty committing theft in 1886 in London.

[jacquelineve]

1882  My g.gran -charged with assault  -   fined 40sh. + costs
 
1888 .....   .....         ...... cutting + wounding - Bench said -"she was well known as a violent woman" 1 months gaol

        Her twin brother had 31 convictions for being drunk + disorderley. In 1993 arrested he was for "breach of the peace" and assaulting  a police constable.
     

1900 A g.g uncle "stealing a flag from a neighbours garden,which had been hoisted to celebrate the relief of Mafeking
                    3 months hard labour.
By 1911 he and his two brothers were all in prison-Winson Green-Parkhurst-Dartmoor

Jackie

[MagicMirror]

I have found

A ggg grandfather fined (& then jailed when he didn't pay up) for having an illicit still in 1866.

A couple of shopkeepers being fined for giving short weight.

A brother of a ggg grandfather as a witness in a murder trial

A gg grandfather writing a series of extremely pompous 'letters to the editor' in the 1880s

Another ggg grandfather who was a  keen cricketer - as he got older he went from the 1st team to the 2nd team and then the committee.

The 2nd husband of a 4x gt grandmother drowning in a canal while intoxicated

These are just the ones who had unusual names - my Smiths, Joneses & Thomases could all be in there too but I'd never know.

[coombs]

I have found a few obituaries and marriage notices for ancestors.

[alpinecottage]

My great great grandfather was a policeman in Manchester in 1860s and 70s and several of his "encounters" were reported in Manchester newspapers.  The best was a report of how one night he was on his beat when he came across a house on fire and the householder trapped upstairs.  He shouted to the man to jump from the window, which he did but unfortunately was killed in the process.  An enquiry was held which concluded that no blame could be attached to the policeman, my 2xgt grandfather, "because he did his best"....

I hope the poor victim's family saw things in the same light! 

[Erato]

1.  An ancestor ship wrecked in New Ireland and allegedly almost eaten by cannibals.  [I think the entire story is false but it did appear in the newspaper in 1900.  She had been involved in another less dramatic ship wreck.]

2.  GG grandfather detained for mental observation following his very acrimonious divorce in 1884.  Headline:  “Raving maniac.  C.H. Ware losses [sic] his mental grip.”

3.  An ancestor’s home bombed [no death or injuries] allegedly by a man he had caught poaching rabbits on his boss’s property in 1882.  The poacher was acquitted of the bomb attack.

4.  Ancestor’s wife arrested for stalking an actor in San Francisco in 1913.  Follow up article about her attempted suicide as a result of the humiliation occasioned by the arrest.